A public inquiry into the death of Alexander Litvinenko opens in the high court on Tuesday, eight years after the former Russian intelligence officer and MI6 informant was murdered in London with deadly polonium.

Hearings will take place in court 73 over the next 10 weeks, and there is worldwide interest in the case. The inquiry’s chairman, Sir Robert Owen, is expected to indicate where responsibility for Livinenko’s death lies. Owen has stated there is a “prima facie” case against the Russian state and its operatives.

Litvinenko was poisoned on 1 November 2006, after meeting two Russian contacts, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, in the Millennium hotel in London. The pair allegedly slipped radioactive polonium-210 into Litvinenko’s green tea. Litvinenko died in a London hospital 22 days later, after blaming Vladimir Putin for his Cold War-style assassination.

The Crown Prosecution Service has charged Lugovoi and Kovtun with Litvinenko’s murder. Putin, however, has refused to allow them to be extradited from Moscow. In 2007 Britain expelled four Russian diplomats in protest, with Russia following suit. Neither of the two suspects will take part in the inquiry. They say they are innocent.

Litvinenko’s widow Marina and son Anatoly – aged 12 at the time of his father’s death and now 20 – are expected to attend. The inquiry will hear for the first time from the Metropolitan police, whose officers interviewed Litvinenko in the intensive care ward of University College hospital, London, shortly before his death.

The Met is also likely to make public compelling forensic evidence showing a trail of polonium left by Lugovoi and Kovtun in their hotel, and in numerous other locations around London. Detective inspector Craig Mascall will give evidence on Wednesday, followed by two forensic pathologists, Dr Nathaniel Carey and Dr Benjamin Swift.

Some of the witnesses will give evidence anonymously in a closed court – including one expert identified only as “scientist A1”. Owen, a former judge, will not examine Litvinenko’s clandestine role with British intelligence. At the time of his death, Litvinenko was on MI6’s payroll and was also working as an informer for the Spanish security services.

Hundreds of journalists are expected to following the inquiry, with proceedings broadcast to an overflow room, with a five-minute delay for security reasons. Owen has forbidden tweeting in the main court. In 2013 an inquest into Litvinenko’s death effectively collapsed after the government refused to release secret files that apparently incriminated the Kremlin.

Marina Litvinenko appealed and the home secretary Theresa May agreed to an inquiry last summer, days after the shooting down of a civilian airliner, Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, over eastern Ukraine by pro-Russian rebels. May had previously ruled out an inquiry on the grounds it might damage the UK’s relations with Moscow.